Issue 01:AYDIN AKIN

Since arriving in Berlin almost 50 years ago, AYDIN AKIN has been obsessed with improving the lives of the city's migrants.

If you live in Berlin or have visited sometime in the last 12 years, it’s likely you have seen him — he’s the man who rides a heavily adorned bicycle across the city every day, blowing on a whistle, pumping his arms and blasting the football chant Olé, Olé, Olé.

When young newcomers arrive in Berlin today, high on the city’s hopeful energy, it’s never long before somebody one-ups them with the classic line: “Berlin was so much better five years ago.”

AYDIN has been here for nearly half a century now. But he reckons that for Berlin’s newcomers, the best is yet to come. And he’s fighting every day to try to get us there.

In this issue

NANSEN Magazine aims to connect and celebrate migrants of all kinds.

Welcome to NANSEN, a super-personal print magazine about migration. Get to know one migrant per issue, as we hone in on the minutiae of lives lived away from home – moments all migrants can relate to and many non-migrants will, too.

With 244 million migrants roaming the planet right now, we don’t think we’re ever going to run out of stories.